#learn bangla

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: বরবাদ (bôrbad)

English: wasted/ruined

Etymology: Borrowed from Classical Persian برباد‎ (bar-bâd).

Cognates: With Hindi/Urdu बरबाद,برباد‎ (barbād) and Ushojo برباد (barbād).

Phrases/Sentences: আজকের দিনটা বরবাদ করলাম।

ājkēr dinṭā bôrbād korlām.

Translated: I wasted my whole day today.

[banglanotebook]

From personal experience, learning the Bengali alphabet isn’t exactly a breeze, but it’s still very doable even when you come from a significantly different writing system. So for those of you who are stuck or don’t know where to start, don’t worry! This post will include methods to help you sort out different obstacles and sharpen your skills. I have included links to resources and posts I’ve made to help you.

1. GETTING ACQUAINTED When I first started learning I found the best thing to do was to learn letters one at a time and just practice recognition. View each character alongside a romanization system you’re comfortable with so you can associate them with a sound. If you can find resources with audio this can help a lot, especially if you’re more of an auditory learner. @ohshelearns​ has a couple YouTube videos on her channel where she draws, pronounces, and explains the Bengali characters. She has one video for vowels (shoroborno) and one for consonants (banjonborno). Try to say the sounds out loud as you read each letter!

2. WRITING LETTERS Learning how to write each character will begin to sharpen your recall because you are actively engaging with the letters, and it will force you to be mindful of all the curves and angles that make each character unique. Try finding children’s apps and worksheets to practice your writing. I absolutely loved the BorKnow app when I first started.

3. READING/WRITING WORDS So maybe you know your individual letters, or you have them about 70% memorized. Here you can bump it up a little bit to fill in the gaps and apply your new knowledge. I found it really helps to focus on very simple words so you can easily identify the characters that compose them. My Word of the Day is actually the product of this study! When I started, I chose very simple words so I can read how letters look in a word.

My advice to you is look through a trusted Bengali-English dictionary (I use this one) or even my Word of the Day posts and practice reading simple words and writing them down in Bangla --repetition really helps. Challenge yourself by writing them in Bangla without peeking. If you want to use my Word of the Day posts, select the earlier weeks --they have simple words with one or two syllables and no conjunct characters.

4. THIS ALPHABET IS OVERWHELMING! WHAT DO I DO?! The size, complexity, and overall different appearance of this writing system can be daunting to learners --especially to those who are used to writing systems that don’t classify as abugidas. The best thing to do is learn your letters in bite-sized pieces. Break up the alphabet into groups of four or five characters and memorize those ones confidently before you move on to the next group. @ohshelearns does this very well in the videos I linked above. One video is just vowels, and her consonants video has the consonants separated into “sets”.

5. SOME OF THE LETTERS LOOK THE SAME SO I MIX THEM UP! I advise doing the same thing as in the point above, but group the letters that look similar and are giving you trouble (য/য়, ঢ/ট/ঢ়, ড়/ড, ই/হ, etc.). From here, use a dictionary and find words that include your trouble letters and memorize the spellings of those words. Many of these letter groupings may have a similar appearance but they have very different sounds. If you can memorize the words that they are in you will acquaint the letters with the words they belong in, and writing them repeatedly will drop them from your muscle memory into your mental memory. You can also just fall back on old-school flashcards until you have memorized them.

6. SOME OF THE LETTERS SOUND THE SAME SO I MIX THEM UP! To be honest I still have this problem a lot and I’m in the process of ironing them out. This is where audio is extremely helpful because no amount of reading is going to properly model for you sounds that don’t exist in your inventory. In Bangla, the sounds that give Western language speakers a lot of problems are the aspirated characters because we don’t clearly distinguish them like Bengali speakers do. Ka/kha, ga/gha, cha/chha, and ta/tha are examples of this and to those of us unfamiliar with these sounds we have a hard time even hearing them at first. The same goes for dental vs. palatal distinctions, so palatal t and dental t can be difficult, for example. 

Regardless of what sounds you’re struggling with, I suggest listening to apps or native speakers. If your reading is advanced, you can read along with texts with audio as well. The BorKnow app I mentioned above and @ohshelearns‘ videos include how to pronounce the sounds of each character. You might have to repeat clips over and over again before you notice the difference. It is also very helpful to try to copy the speakers you’re listening to in order to solidify the connection between letter and sound. Listening to music and watching movies can help familiarize you with the sounds of the language, they just don’t show you which letter it is that’s being pronounced. It’s still a good habit to immerse yourself to get used to new sounds.

Of all of these points, this one takes the most time to develop if your proficient language(s) does not contain the same sound inventory as Bangla. Right now I’m just reading and writing until I run into a problem, in which case I go over that letter over and over again. I’m slowly being able to tell the difference between ba/bha, ka/kha, cha/chha, but I still struggle with my t and d sounds. I think this will just take time because you have to hear it enough times before you can grasp it.

7. I HAVE A MORE SPECIFIC ISSUE THAN THESE. You can check my Lessons tab for more information on the Bengali alphabet, or you can access my Resources tab if you want to find activities and resources to help you with your obstacles. If you’re still having trouble, my ask box is always open, although I am far from being an expert in Bangla. @ohshelearns is another good person to ask as she is a fluent Bengali speaker (and a wonderful teacher!). @currylangs is a blog focused around South Asian languages and they have a couple Bangla-speaking mods that would be happy to help as well.

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: বৃষ্টি(br̥ṣṭi)

English: Rain

Etymology: From Sanskrit বৃষ্টি (vṛṣṭi).

Example: অনেক দিন পর , আজকে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে !

ônek din pôr, ājke br̥ṣṭi poṛche!

After many days, it is raining today!

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: আলিঙ্গন(āliṅgon)

English: hug, embrace

Etymology: From Sanskrit आलिङ्गन (āliṅgana); synchronically analysable as आ- (ā-) +‎ लिंगन (liṅgan).

Compare with Gujarati આલિંગન (āliṅgan), Marathi आलिंगन (āliṅgan), Kannada ಆಲಿಂಗನ (āliṅgana), Telugu ఆలింగనము (āliṅganamu), Malayalam ആലിംഗനം (āliṅganaṃ), Maithili आलिङ्गन (āliṅgan) / 𑒂𑒪𑒱𑒓𑓂𑒑𑒢 (āliṅgana), Hindustani آلِنگَن‎/ आलिंगन (āliṅgan), Assamese আলিঙ্গন (aliṅgon), Sinhalese ආලිංගනය (āliṁganaya).

Phrases/Sentences: তোমাকে আলিঙ্গন করতে আমার ভালো লাগে।

tomāke āliṅgon korte āmār bhālō lāge.

Translated: I love to hug you.

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় (biśśobiddālôy)

English: University

Etymology: From Sanskrit বিশ্ব (viśva, “universe, world”) +‎ বিদ্যালয় (vidyālaya, “school”), likely influenced by English 'university'.

Phrases/Sentences: সে অক্সফোর্ড বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের ছাত্র।

sē ôksphōrḍ biśśobiddālôyer chātro.

Translate: He is a student of Oxford University.

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: ঝগড়া (jhôgṛā)

English : fight / quarrel

Etymology: from Middle Bengali ঝগড় (jhôgoṛ)

Cognates: With Assamese জগৰ (zogor) and Hindi झगड़ा (jhagṛā).

Phrases/Sentences: এতো ঝগড়া করিস না !

ætō jhôgṛā koris nā!

Translation: Do not fight so much!

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day : ভয়ঙ্কর

(bhôyoṅkôr/bhaw-yong-kawr)

English: terrible

Etymology: Borrowed from the Sanskrit word 'bhayaṃkara'

Phrases/Sentences:

ওই দৃশ্যটা কি ভয়ঙ্কর !

o'i dr̥śśoṭā ki bhôyoṅkôr!

Translation:

That scene is terrible!

[bongboyblog]

Bengali word of the day: হতচকিত (hôtocokito)

English: shocked/taken aback

Etymology:

হত + চকিত (hôto + cokito)

From Sanskrit হত (hata), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *źʰatás, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ǰʰatás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰn̥-tó-s, from *gʷʰen- (“to kill”). Cognate with Avestan 𐬘𐬀𐬙𐬋‎ (jatō), Old Persian 𐎩𐎫 (jatáʰ), Ancient Greek φατός (phatós).

And from Sanskrit চকিত (cakita) - to be surprised, amazed.

Phrases/Sentences: দৃশ্যটা দেখে সে হতচকিত হয়ে গেল!

dr̥śyoṭā ta dekhe se hôtôcôkit hoye gelo!

Translation: She was shocked after seeing the scene!